How do I counter the 7 roach rush build?

Solution 1:

So there seems to be a bunch of misinformation going on here, mostly around how dangerous a 7 Roach Rush is.

I've run it a number of times, especially on very fast maps and I'll tell you right now: it is very weak.

The Build itself

As others have pointed out even though his Roaches finish around 4:40 his push doesn't come to ~5:30. For people comfortable with 3 Rax timing pushes at 6:00, this should feel very manageable. What's worse, is that if you commit to this rush you're left with 16 Drones around the 5:30 minute mark. That's usually an economic loss which is almost impossible to come back from.

What usually scares people is that a Zerg player is being very aggressive early in the game, and its something most players aren't used to. Where as early Zergling play is usually handled by a wall off, no similar option exists for Roaches. What's more with their longer range Roaches can now pick off wall ins with out taking damage. Finally, the Roach Den itself doesn't go down till 3:45, so unless you've blind committed to 2 Gate or Void Rays, there really isn't an opportunity to switch your build. This also means that he has every opportunity to switch out of his Roach rush by spotting an early second gate (or Starport).

While that may seem scary try to remember that Roaches themselves are only really strong against Zealots and Marines, and very weak against Zerglings, Stalkers and Marauders, so most standard builds will actually have decent forces in place to deal with this. Unless you're trying for some crazy Zealot or Marine only push what you build in the natural course of a 3 Rax, 3 Gate, or Speedlings, should actually be enough.

Story Time

Let's take an example:

Let's say my brother is player Zerg. My brother isn't great so he goes 14 gas 14 pool without ever scouting, delayed expansion on 22, and doesn't even notice the Roaches till they're moving out at 4:40. So he cancels his expo, throws down 3 spine crawlers and pumps Zerglings... you know when he remembers to, so like at 5:03.

Now he's playing on Steps of War, the map with the smallest rush distance where you really have to scout, so the rush arrives at 5:20! His Spine Crawlers aren't finished, and to make matters worse, his opponent has squeezed out a magical 8th Roach.

Now my brother kind of sucks so he doesn't even really micro he just sends in his Zerglings + Queen, while the Roaches take out one of the still building spinecrawlers and are even reinforced by a 9th Roach! And what happens?

He doesn't even spend those 5 extra larva on Zerglings, but opts for workers instead. Now, my brother is ahead on Workers, has those two Spine Crawlers he can use to discourage a second wave of Roaches and can expand since he has 400 minerals... that baddy.

When I say 7 Roach rush is weak I really mean it. Its not the sort of thing you even need to really make a special build for, any "normal" play really counters it.

Let me shift gears for a moment

But Tzenes... I'm a super ultra mega baddy who's even worse than your brother... what can I do?

The reason many lower level players like the 7 Roach rush is because its really spelled out for them. Do X at time Y. Very easy to execute. By comparison saying something like: Just go 14 gas, 14 pool and build a bunch of Spine Crawlers when he leaves his base... you should be fine is not easy to execute. It leaves out important details like: build your Queen as soon as the Spawning Pool finishes, Zergling speed will finish right as your first Larval injection does and most importantly if he goes around to your workers instead of your Spine Crawlers, just pull the workers away, let your 10 extra Zerglings finish and then you can catch him in the open and Speedlings destroy Roaches in the open.

So where do you learn these things you ask? By polishing a build order.

If your build order is polished, you won't be waiting an extra 23 seconds to even start your first wave of Zerglings like my brother did. You won't be supply blocking yourself at 26, and you'll get a third wave of Zerglings while the Roaches are attacking. So my advice to you is: go download YABOT, and fear 7 Roach Rush no more.

Solution 2:

Scout Early!

Scout early as you will need to see this rush coming, it has the following characteristics:

No scout drone, lings or expo.
A higher drone count, 17 towards 3:00.
A roach warren, he can't hide it because of the creep.

Harass a Drone!

If you are good in micro you can hope for drones to follow and harass a single drone.
Protoss might want to place a proxy instead, depending on how you will counter him.

Build up your defenses and go for a counter attack.

Terran:
Bunker + 3 Rax, build MM and focus on Marauders to counter the Roaches.
Then Fac + Star, create medivac(s) and do a drop near his mineral line.

Protoss:
Cannons are possible, but are bad for your economy. You have better options:

Early harass: Send in early zealot(s) and pick off workers, there are no zerglings!
Four warp gates: Create a proxy pylon, warp in 8 zealots and harass right after his roaches go out (seen with probe). In any case you can take out his buildings before he takes you out... Worst case, create a cheap building somewhere on the map. He can't do this due to his creep.
Stargate: Should be out around 3:30, boost it twice to create a quick void ray.
Together with Stalkers from two gates and Phoenix later you can even handle an all-in.
Wall + Sentries + Cannons: See this replay, beats an all-in without Immortals.

Zerg:
Roach openings are popular in this case, so you should be doing one too.
You won't be able to counter him with Zerglings and Banelings...

In the case of a random spawn...

If you have to search him first, the scouting might be too late. So this means that for such maps you will need to prepare part of your counter attack to counter the effect of discovering it later.

Zerg will have to search you too as he didn't scout (except for slow overlord), this is your advantage...

Source: Mix of common knowledge, comments out of your link and Liquipedia II.

Solution 3:

The first thing I want to point out is that this is an all in build meaning that if you are able to hold it off, you will likely be so far ahead economically that you will easily win in the midgame as long as you keep producing workers during the push.

Scout You should notice that the pool was somewhat fast. Since they have no offensive units, you should still be in the base and see the fast roach warren at which point..

Protoss You probably already have a gateway and a cyber core wall at the front of your base. Chrono boost a sentry and plan on using a force field to keep them from breaking the ramp. You want either 1 or 2 gate and a robo. Immortals tear roaches apart. Build zealots with excess minerals (gas is going toward immortals).

Terran Go for marauders. They out range roaches and do decent damage as well. Conc shells will make the fight even more imbalanced. You'll get plenty of free shots in at the choke in your main.

Zerg I actually like building spine crawlers along with speed lings. You should start the crawlers as your opp leaves his base and they should finish just in time for the arrival. After the initial push fails, you can exploit the lack of roach speed by running directly into their base. If you scout early enough, you could plant a crawler on their creep as well.

Solution 4:

Scout If you don't scout the 7RR you will lose, but it's very easy to scout.

DO NOT GET SUPPLY BLOCKED OR YOU WILL LOSE

If you are playing standard your scout should easily be able to stay alive because he will not have any zerglings or queens to take out the scout before the roach warren goes down. If you cannot keep up with microing your scout, shift queue a patrol ring around his base so that the probe doesn't die.

As soon as you see the roach warren go down

Protoss

Stop building zealots unless you are blocked on gas.
Make sure you have taken a 2nd gas geyser
Get at least one or two sentries to Force Field the ramp and stall
Build Stalkers OR Get a robo and chrono boost an immortal
Defend with immortals then push. If you see more lings start getting zealots again.

Terran

Build a bunker
Stop teching and produce more barrack structures. Three total should be good
Put marines in the bunker (prioritized over marauders)
For the love of God, send 4-6 SCVs to repair the bunker. Also right click the repair icon so they auto-repair
If you have a techlab on your Barracks, get a few marauders if not keep making marines.
Defend the rush, salvage the bunker, push.

Zerg

Throw down a spine crawler in his base with your scout. He won't have anyway to stop it w/o pulling drones off. Just make sure you cancel the spine crawler if it begins to take too much damage while building.
Throw down 3 or 4 spine crawlers in your base and around 4-6 zerglings
Keep droning.
Once you hold the push you can counter attack or tech to muta. I usually pop my head in his base to see if I can end the game, but I usually assume not and tech to muta for the game closer. The high drone count and better tech makes it much more one sided as mutas come out.

As zerg, If you build a lot of ground forces to stop the push, you better counter attack because otherwise you are just waisting your larva and losing your advantage.